The Truth Is In The Data

Life in the Sector is strange without my brother.

We grew up with the same face. Identical male twins are rare these days because taxes for a double birth are too high. Jon came first.

...Two and a half decades later, Jon died first.

Can a shadow become solid? Who will set the path? The patterns are unfamiliar.

For my twin life was a glow maze, one of those free downloads that eat up time. Just illusions and endless loops. Eventually reality turned out the lights.

Jon was afraid of the dark in more ways than one.

•••

I'm not a full citizen. Not in the Sector, or in the City of Ys. My success can never be through the system. My only true citizenship is in The Game. In the real world I'm dust and smoke.

The first time I added to The Game, numbers fell like raindrops. An imperfect storm of information, messy and startling. I was addicted from the first play.

Code is beautiful—soaking, flowing, transforming the mind with a flood of implications—but inevitably flawed.

Human emotion messes with the numbers. Our reactions are a devastating variable.

•••

Dinner for dad takes twenty minutes. He eats two mouthfuls before throwing it on the floor. An improvement.

Cleaning the house takes up a whole hour. Another day I've gotten through without playing The Game. You don't miss the City of Ys, I tell myself. You don't.

The rest of the night slips away in a coding haze.

Dad needs clean water, and improved air, and he likes to download entertainment blocks too. Splicing credit segments online equals prison, but I'm too good to get caught.

Jon used to say corporations price out the basics to keep the poor quiet. His voice is always in my head.

Who can complain when exhausted from the hustle?

Jon would want the apartment to stay comfortable. It's the least I can do; I'm the only family dad has left.

He deserves better.

•••

The marketplace opens around sunrise. I need a legit income. Don't want anyone to wonder how dad and I get by. Selling minor data packs makes sense. Everyone in the Sector knows I'm good with numbers.

Stay in plain sight.

The market is noisy but the quality of the chaos is familiar. Sounds help people cope when they're tired and hungry.

The ones who fall silent are dangerous.

Sum drops by the stall around lunchtime. The smog is thinning. Mornings are the worst. Pollution levels are bad this time of year.

"You're pale, Ak. Everything okay?" Sum won't let anyone mess with me.

"Late night."

"Old man givin' you trouble?"

I shake my head.

Sum was Jon's lover. Once he kissed me, and then apologized.

"You're not him at all Akio."

I didn't mind, since I didn't feel anything except skin and pressure.

•••

Maria sidles by in the afternoon.